Master of the Hunt
by Smirking Menace
Summary: Lily was ready when Voldemort came, and protected her baby boy. The magical world didn't know what hit it that Halloween night.
1. Part One: Ritual

**Disclaimer:** _You know the drill, you recognize it, it belong to JK Rowling._

**Summary: **_Lily was ready when Voldemort came, and protected her baby boy. The magical world didn't know what hit it that Halloween night._

* * *

**Master of the Hunt**

_**By Smirking Menace**_

Part One: Ritual

Lily Potter was a bright witch.

Lily Potter was a desperate mother.

Those two changed he morals enough to recreate an old German ritual that made it possible for one to assimilate their foes' power and make it their own. The recipient of such a dark ritual would be her newborn son, that she feared may soon be targeted by the Dark Lord Voldemort because of a prophecy that was recently made. So the woman prepared the ritual and quietly whisked away her few months old baby one dark November night to enact it.

Runes made of her blood and those of powerful creatures were traced upon young Harry Potter as dark incense burned heavily in the air of the small ritual chamber in the belly of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Lily chanted the forgotten words in a guttural voice, the ambient magic thickening with every ancient word as the witch waved her wand in a complicated pattern, rising in pitch until all was silent once more.

The magic was nearly suffocating as Lily tearfully carved her own son's forehead with an enchanted knife, tracing a lightning bolt on the left side of his brows whit apologizing repeatedly under her breathe as he son cried and cried from the pain.

As soon as the wound was made did it magically seal, absorbing all of the ambient magic with it. Feeling weak from the drain to her core engendered by the ritual, Lilly potter took her son in her arms and made her way back out of the bank, nodding in acknowledgement of the goblin as she passed them and taking a portkey home as soon as she reached Diagon Alley.

She had done it.

Her baby would be safe for years to come.

One year passed without trouble and soon Halloween of the year 1981 was drawing to a close, the Potters safely tucked in for the night when a great crash announcing the fall of the wards resonated through the modest cottage. Terrified, James told Lily to take Harry to safety and took the courage his old school house was renowned for in his hand and ran downstairs to confront what he knew was Voldemort himself.

James was dead a few moments later. Lily knew this in her heart of hearts.

Tears-filled green eyes looked at similar ones as she reached her son's cradle and took him in her arms, kissing the glamoured scar she inflicted on his tiny forehead nearly a year ago. James would have not approved if he had known, Lily sadly thought.

Another crash, this one from the door just behind her, a plea for her son's life, a bright flash of green... Darkness.

The sole remaining Potter wailed as he instinctively knew he was now alone in the world as his mother fell to the hardwood floor of his nursery, followed by an awful high pitched laugh from the scary creature before him. The creature said something and green light once more illuminated the room, followed by _pain_.

Both dark wizard and baby screamed bloody murder as they were forcefully merged in essence as the older body dissolved and it's shattered soul was digested by the strong magic that suddenly filled the air. The remaining bow glowed a dark green and disappeared with a pop, never to be seen in England for a decade and then some.

* * *

**AN: This will borrow from the tales surrounding the Erlking and his Huntsmen, though they will now really appear in this story.**


	2. Part Two: Forest Boy

**Disclaimer:** _You know the drill, you recognize it, it belong to JK Rowling._

**Summary: **_Lily was ready when Voldemort came, and protected her baby boy. The magical world didn't know what hit it that Halloween night._

* * *

**Master of the Hunt**

_**By Smirking Menace**_

Part Two: Forest Boy

His whole body was in pain and he felt strange, like he was both more aware and younger than he should be. Who was he? Harry Potter. Yes, he was Harry Potter. Child of the Mudblood and the Blood Traitor. No, that wasn't right...

His parents were wonderful! Dada and Mama were always here for him but... they were gone now, weren't they?

His head hurt, assaulted by confusing image... memories...? Yes, they were memories, they were called. He knew this from the Other That Was Not. The Other That Was Not tried to kill him but failed, and left behind... himself? He could not process it right now... too young yet.

Opening his eyes, that's what he should do.

Groaning, he did as he told himself and saw darkness... no, that was merely a very dark forest. Magic flickered over his skin... a magical area?

He had to find _shelter_ and _food_. Shelter was underground, food... food was in the wildlife.

The child that was yet wasn't crawled painfully to his tiny feet and made a small tottering way to a nearby tree before falling with a yelp, not yet secure enough in his footing to walk in such a darkly forested area that was the most magical forest in Albania, where Lord Voldemort had prepared a ritual that would transport him back to this dark lair of trees should anything go wrong.

Albania... such a funny name for such a scary place...

A slithering from the corner of his glowing green eyes... Hunger.

He willed his budding powers to bring that slithering meal to him and prevent it from striking him dead, instinctively knowing how to prevent his death by any mean necessary. He bit and ate the green scale covered flesh and feasted on it's inner strength. Blood rushing down his throat and flesh tearing under his sharpening teeth. The snake that could have been known as Nagini perished that night.

His magic learned from the snake, strengthening his skin a little more and imbuing his saliva with a little bit of venom to paralyse his prey. Harry felt stronger.

Harry felt exhausted.

Taking the last of his strength to burrow beneath thick black root from a nearby tree, the child fell asleep, his now slightly poisonous scent strengthening in potency as night passed and kept predators away.

Dawn approached and the young boy found himself awakening in a bed made of his own shed skin, the snake he ate apparently magical enough to change him in some ways. Where skin used to rest now glowed pale scales, soft to the touch like the underbelly of the snake had been when he tore it open with his teeth.

He was Hungry again.

He needed more strength.

Finding that this new skin of his was less sensitive, Harry decided to crawl on the ground instead of once more attempt to walk and set out to hunt.

A Child of the Forest was born that day.


	3. Part Three: The Curse

**Disclaimer:** _You know the drill, you recognize it, it belong to JK Rowling._

**Summary: **_Lily was ready when Voldemort came, and protected her baby boy. The magical world didn't know what hit it that Halloween night._

* * *

**Master of the Hunt**

_**By Smirking Menace**_

Part Three: The Curse

Harry prowled in the underbrush of the dark Albanian forest as he looked for a prey to consume, slightly poisonous saliva pooled in his mouth at the thought of more of that delicious taste he had when eating the snake earlier and left him wanting for more. Much more.

Eyes peering into the darkness unseeingly, the young boy had to trust his magic and heightening instincts to hunt for his elusive prey as it grazed, tranquil, in a moonlight glade. It shined, beautiful and so tempting as a ray of moonlight pierced the sky.

His magic struck, poisonous and twisted by the absorption of so much dark magic as it wrapped around the unsuspecting steed of moonlit beauty, it's owned crawling as fast as he could to his prey and biting on the vulnerable spot over a golden shimmering hoof.

The unicorn fell to the forest floor, not even trashing as the poison contained both in the boy's magic and saliva made short work of it's ability to move. Soon it looked upon the child, pleading only to see mindless hunger for magic and flesh. The magical creature closed it's opalescent eyes in defeat, ready to die but cursing the thing over his flank on it's dying breathe as the creature once known as Harry Potter feasted on it's silvery flesh and drank it's holy blood in a quest for satiation.

Lily's sacrifice did strange things to her boy, and maybe she would have tried something else had she knew the consequences to her act that cold November night.

As he feasted on his prey, the bow felt something both die and be born inside him as his emotion deadened to make place to a yearning for the life of others. Harry potter, but one year and a half of age, had become a monster. In his veins his blood turned oily and black, his flesh becoming cold like stone and his eyes losing the ability to cry.

The curse of the unicorn had taken hold.

A gasp in the darkness was unheeded as the small child could not help himself from feasting until nothing was left of the unicorn, licking the dirt until the ground no longer was tinted with silver and gnawing on the bones until they were but a powder in his small stomach.

Bloated, the newborn monster slept, his memories slowly being eaten away by the curse to be forgotten forever.

At dawn Harry Potter would no longer exist and a powerful dark creature like none had appeared before in over centuries would be truly born.


	4. Part Four: Little Hunter

**Disclaimer:** _You know the drill, you recognize it, it belong to JK Rowling._

**Summary: **_Lily was ready when Voldemort came, and protected her baby boy. The magical world didn't know what hit it that Halloween night._

* * *

**Master of the Hunt**

_**By Smirking Menace**_

Part Four: Little Hunter

'Who am I? Where am I? How did I get here...?'

Numerous question flew through the creature's head as he... (was he even a he anymore...?) ...as it slowly awakened from it's long slumber. It felt hungry and empty... a hunger that could not be satisfied and an emptiness that could not be filled, it innately knew. An eternity that seemed like a second... (or was it the other way around?) ...passed him by. Him? Yes... Him... he felt like a him, even though he didn't know what being a him meant.

He was lying on a dying thing of his own making and could sense death all around him... he had to get out of there! Opening his eyes took but a moment and soon his sight was clear on the dark sky. Crawling away seemed a matter of course and he felt himself move as by something out of his control to his new haven underground, under a yew tree. This strange contraption that he did not know felt safer than the other, somehow. And so he slept.

He was cold... so cold as he awoke once more. Why was it so cold? There, something warm, just out of his reach... he approached it and struck it with his inner power, his essence skinning it alive and wrapped the remain on his short form. The protrusion on it's head now adorning his brow as his inner self attached it painfully to himself, using it's strength for their own.

The stag laid dead, and was soon consumed by the perpetually hungry creature, it's hunter. Now feeling warmer, the being set out to find more to eat, more to warm himself against and so his hunt began anew. Until dawn he hunted, and many creatures died under his hunger and need for warmth.

Cradling the hides under his tiny taloned hands, the young one crawled back to the yew tree and made a den of his spoils, taking briars and spiderwebs that took his haven's entire space previously, he wound it all around his lengthening fingers and slept, as strange melody upon his lips.

Many nights passed as thus, with the creature sleeping from dawn til dusk and hunting from dusk till down, his new nature not tolerating the sun.

The creature grew as it ate and the strength of his prey became his own. But he was never satisfied at all, he always wanted more and that is when he found him.

The Biped.

Such power came from such a small package... he had to have it.

* * *

**AN: Next will have some cannibalism, I'm afraid, but it will get better for young Harry's future afterwards.**


End file.
